With Nigeria still battling nearly 46 million open defecators despite years of campaigns and missed targets, the race towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 deadline is fast becoming a national sanitation emergency, AMEH OCHOJILA reports.

Four years to the global 2030 deadline for ending open defecation under Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.2, there are concerns over Nigeria’s ability to achieve the target, with over 46 million of its citizens still battling with the scourge.

Information from the Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation indicated that, of the country’s 774 local councils, only 172 are currently certified as Open Defecation Free (ODF).

Despite years of campaigns, executive orders, international partnerships, and policy roadmaps, it remains among the countries with the highest number of people practising open defecation globally – a public health emergency that exposes millions of people to diseases, environmental contamination, and preventable deaths.

Nigeria had, in 2019, overtaken India as the country with the highest number of people practising open defecation. India, with over 1.3 billion people and a far larger landmass, had embarked on an aggressive sanitation revolution under its Swachh Bharat Mission, investing billions of dollars in toilet construction and behavioural change campaigns, while Nigeria, with a population of about 200 million, has perennially struggled under a heavier sanitation burden.

It would be recalled that in 2019, an estimated 47 million Nigerians practised open defecation. By 2026, the figure still hovers around 46 million. Against the backdrop of a rapidly growing population, the reduction is negligible and reflects a crisis that has largely stagnated rather than improved.

Less than half of the population currently has access to basic sanitation facilities, while millions still lack access to safe water and proper hygiene services. The situation is worse in rural communities, even as urban slums are increasingly affected by rapid urbanisation, which stretches already weak infrastructure.

With support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and development partners, the National Council on Water Resources adopted a roadmap in 2014 aimed at eliminating open defecation by 2025.

The initiative was later reinforced in November 2019 with the signing of Executive Order 009, declaring Nigeria Open Defecation Free (ODF) by 2025. The cost of toilet construction, sensitisation programmes, and institutional reforms was estimated at N1 trillion at the time.

Unfortunately, the country was nowhere near actualisation at the dawn of the 2025 deadline. Quietly, the target has shifted to 2030 under President Bola Tinubu’s administration, effectively aligning the country once again with the broader global SDG timeline.

For many policy analysts, the shift was an admission that the previous target had failed. Of 774 local councils, fewer than 250 are currently certified as Open Defecation Free due to structural, financial, and behavioural factors.

Although hundreds of billions are expended annually on sanitation, public investment in sanitation remains grossly inadequate.

Unlike India, which committed approximately $20 billion to a sanitation campaign, Nigeria has never matched its ambitions with a comparable financial commitment. Most sanitation projects have remained heavily donor-dependent, and budgetary allocations at the federal and state levels are either insufficient or poorly implemented.

The local councils that are constitutionally responsible for environmental sanitation and primary public health enforcement have struggled for decades with poor funding and institutional collapse.

Historically, environmental health officers enforced sanitation regulations within communities. Known in parts of the country as wole-wole, nwaole-ala, or duba-gari, the officials once played a visible role in maintaining hygiene standards.

Experts argue that the country’s sanitation crisis is rooted in behavioural patterns, social stigma, and inadequate public education.

In many rural communities, open defecation remains culturally tolerated, while awareness of its health implications is limited.

Although the Clean Nigeria Campaign has intensified sensitisation efforts, behavioural change has proven far slower than anticipated. Building toilets does not necessarily guarantee their use where water scarcity and cultural practices intersect.

Meanwhile, a rapidly expanding population is willy-nilly complicating progress.

The implications extend beyond public health. Poor sanitation affects school attendance, child mortality, food security, environmental sustainability, and economic productivity.

According to global health estimates, every dollar invested in sanitation yields multiple returns through reduced healthcare costs and increased productivity.

But despite the bleak statistics, the Clean Nigeria Campaign has helped place sanitation more prominently within national discourse, while partnerships involving UNICEF, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), youth groups, and community leaders have expanded awareness campaigns across several states.

Global sanitation advocate and founder, World Toilet Organisation (WTO), Prof. Jack Sim, warned that unless there is a coordinated national sanitation drive, Nigeria risks missing its 2030 OPF target.

“If the civil service is efficient, innovative, and able to serve the people at low cost and high efficiency, the country will grow very fast. It looks like at this moment, the 2030 target of zero open defecation is not likely to happen,” he said, aligning with reports that the timeline could stretch to 2046 if current efforts are not accelerated. All problems can be solved once there is leadership,” Sim added.

Drawing comparisons with India and China, he insisted that transformational sanitation reforms are achievable if driven from the highest political level.

“In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pushed sanitation nationally, and eventually, 110 million toilets were built for over 600 million people. In China, it took about 20 years to clean up public toilets, beginning with tourism facilities. Today, most public toilets in major cities are clean.”

According to him, Nigeria can still reverse current projections if political will strengthens and sanitation is elevated to a national movement. But beyond government intervention, Sim advocated a market-based sanitation model that makes toilet ownership socially aspirational rather than merely a public health obligation.

Citing Cambodia as a successful example of improved sanitation coverage despite limited government subsidies, Sim noted that communities were motivated differently. People began to see toilet ownership as a sign of higher social status, while peer pressure drove adoption.

He argued that low-income households often prioritise what they perceive as valuable, comparing sanitation behaviour to the rapid spread of mobile phone ownership across poor communities.

“Before cell phones came, people said they had no money, but once they wanted phones, they found ways to buy them. Sanitation can become the same if people truly desire it,” he added.

Also, the Programme Officer, Community Action for Popular Participation (CAPP), Maurice Gupar, noted that with fewer than 250 of the country’s 774 LGAs certified ODF and nearly 46 million citizens still practising open defecation, the country must urgently scale up policy implementation, funding, and enforcement measures to meet the 2030 SDG 6.2 target.

Research findings indicate that as of the second quarter of 2025, only 142-158 local councils had attained ODF status, while Jigawa remained the only fully ODF state nationwide.

He noted that after missing the initial 2025 deadline, the country faces the challenge of certifying about 100 LGAs annually over the next four years to stay on track for 2030.

Gupar also recommended expanding the $700 million World Bank-supported Sustainable Urban and Rural Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (SURWASH) programme beyond its current seven pilot states of Delta, Ekiti, Gombe, Imo, Kaduna, Katsina, and Plateau as a national framework for accountability and implementation.

He, however, cautioned that policy commitments and funding alone will not guarantee success without strict enforcement mechanisms.

He also called for the revival of environmental health officers and sanitary inspectors to enforce household toilet construction and public sanitation standards alongside stricter implementation of Presidential Executive Order 009 and the National Environmental Sanitation Policy.

Other recommendations include deployment of real-time ODF monitoring portals, sanctioning non-performing LGAs, rewarding high-performing states such as Jigawa and Katsina, and linking continued access to WASH funding to verified sanitation performance.

He said Nigeria can realistically attain the SDG sanitation target only if all states begin adequately funding and implementing ODF action plans this year, with strong sub-national ownership, financing, and grassroots-level enforcement.

Also reacting to the slow pace of moves to attain ODF status, a Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) researcher, Gabrial Idoko, while optimistic that notable progress can be made, feared the possibility of meeting the set target without adequate investment in infrastructure and community engagement.

He said: “Nigeria can still make significant progress, but achieving complete elimination of open defecation by the global target date will require much faster investment in sanitation infrastructure, stronger community engagement, and sustained political commitment at all levels. The challenge is substantial, but it is not insurmountable.”

Also, a development expert, Victor Idajili, opined that with millions of Nigerians still lacking access to safe toilets, meeting the global deadline remains a tall ambition.

He, however, expressed the belief that if the federal, state, and local councils can prioritise sanitation by expanding funding and strengthening behaviour-change campaigns, the country can dramatically reduce open defecation and move closer to the target.